GEN/PHI 333. Theories of Gender & Sexuality
Prof. Kyoo Lee, Suite 325-4, Dept. of Philosophy, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Office Hours: M/W 5:20pm - 6:20 pm
Some Classical/Contemporary Texts You're
Strongly
Encouraged to
Read Cover to Cover and
Write About As Main Part of Your Research Paper.
An Extra Credit of Up to 5 Points Applicable.
John Jay Library has copies.
@ Linda Alcoff. Visible Identities : race, gender, and the self
@ Simone de Beauovir. The Second Sex
@ Judith Butler. Gender Trouble
@ Nancy Chodorow. Femininities, Masculinities, Sexualities:
Freud and Beyond@ Patricia Hill Collins. Black Feminist Thought:
knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment @ Ann Cudd and Nancy Holmstrom, Capitalism, For and Against: A Feminist Debate
@ Michel Foucault. The History of Sexuality
@ Marilyn French, From Eve to Dawn : a history of women
Vol.2: The Masculine Mystique@ Sander Gilman. Freud, Race and Gender
@ bell hooks. Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism
@ Michael Kimmel. Men's Lives
@ Martha Nussbaum. From Disgust to Humanity : sexual orientation and constitutional law
@ Kelly Oliver. Women as Weapons of War: Iraq, Sex and the Media
@ Alice Walker. In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose
<<On Daily Reading and Journaling>>
- Try and read all (typically two or three per class day) but
- if pressed for time, aim to read at least one, starting with the first on the list and
- write a well-condensed and composed (no rambling or waffling, please) journal either
- combining all/any of the readings or doing an in-depth analysis of one text of your choice.
- Supplementary readings are for your own reference, also potential material for your further research, and so
- there is no need to write about any of them for your journal unless you happen to find anything particularly interesting.
<<Examples: Journals on "The Personal is Theoretical?"; Theoretical is Scientific?; "Naming Opression and Position": These examples are quite extensive, and you should aim for a shorter version of the comparable level of analytic and critical reading.>>
I. INTRODUCTION: Some Theoretical Questions
INTRODUCTION: Some Theoretical Questions 01/31. Orientation
No readings: come unprepared
02/02. Starting with Ma vie en rose
No readings: come unprepared
Supplementary Reading: Butler on "a Man Who Lived in Maine ... andHe Walked Down ..." (Youtube Clip)
Supplementary Reading: Kidd. Making American Boys: Boyology and the Feral Tale
Supplementary Reading: Media Education Foundation. Tough Guise (Youtube Clip)
Supplementary Reading: Oz. The Stepford Wives (Youtube Clip)
Supplementary Reading: Pierce. Boys Don't Cry (Youtube Clip)
Supplementary Reading: Simmons. Transgeneration (Youtube Clip)
Supplementary Reading: Stockton. The Queer Child, or Growing Up Sideways in the Twentieth Century
02/07. Key Issues Around Gender/Sexuality As Illustrated in Berliner's Ma vie en rose
Chanter. "Introduction: The Challenge of Transgendered Identity: The End of Gender As We Know It?" Gender: Key Concepts
Fausto-Sterling, "The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough"
Supplementary Reading: Chanter. The Picture of Abjection: Film, Fetish, and the Nature of Difference
Supplementary Reading: Chodorow, "Gender as a Personal and Cultural Construction."
Supplementary Reading: Foucault. "What is called "punishing"?"
Supplementary Reading: Jacobsen, "My Sexual Regulation? Family Values and Social Movements,"
02/09. The Personal is Theoretical?
Chanter. "Chapter 1: Formative Moments and Concepts in the History of Feminism." Gender: Key Concepts
Flax. "Women Do Theory."
Lugones and Spelman."Have We Got a Theory for You! [...]'"
Supplementary Reading: Canner, Orgasm, Inc (film)
Supplementary Reading: Lugones. "Playfulness, "World"-Travelling, and Loving Perception"
Supplementary Reading: The New School, Conference on The Body and the State: How the State Controls and Protects the Body (Conference)
02/14. Theoretical is Scientific? The Science of Gender and Science: Pinker vs. Spelke Debate
Pinker and Spelke. A Debate on "The Science of Gender and Science." Script
Fausto-Sterling. "the Five Sexes"
Foucault. "Scientia Sexualis." The History of Sexuality (summary: do read the whole book, three volumes, if further interested.)
Supplementary Reading: Bordo. "What is a Phallus?." The Male Body
Supplementary Reading: Freud. "Female Sexuality"
Supplementary Reading: Freud. "Some Psychical Consequences of Anatomical Differences"
Supplementary: Reading: Hale. "Are Lesbians Women?"
Supplementary Reading: (on) Lacan. "Symbolic, Real, Imaginary"
02/16. Personal, Theoretical, Differential ...
Kimmel. "Who's Afraid of Men Doing Feminism?"
Haraway. "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century."
Davis. "Difficult Dialogues (Video, 2009)." Keynote Speech at the 30th Annual Conference, NWSA, Atlanta, GA .
II.GENDERED/SEXED EXISTENCE
GENDERED/SEXED EXISTENCE 02/23. Coming to Be: Existentially Speaking?
de Beauvoir. "Introduction. " The Second Sex.
Wittig. "One Is Not Born a Woman"
02/28. Right to Be: "Subalterns" Spoken At and About, but not Speaking?
Chanter. "Ch5: Postcolonial Feminist Theory: the Rhetorical Clash of 'East' and 'West'. Gender: Key Concepts
Gramsci. "History of the Subaltern Classes"; "The Concept of "Ideology."; "Cultural Themes: Ideological Material." Prison Notebooks 3.
Spivak. "Can the Subaltern Speak?"
03/02. Event @ the GC, 6:30pm: Can the Subaltern Speak?
Gramsci. "History of the Subaltern Classes"; "The Concept of "Ideology."; "Cultural Themes: Ideological Material." Prison Notebooks 3.
Spivak. "Can the Subaltern Speak?"
Chanter. "Ch5: Postcolonial Feminist Theory: the Rhetorical Clash of 'East' and 'West'. Gender: Key Concepts
03/07. Desire to Be: Only Through The Gender Bind?
Butler. "Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire"
Supplementary Reading: Butler. "Doing Justice to Someone: Sex Assignment and Allegories of Transsexuality."
Supplementary Reading: Butler and Talyor. From Examined Life (Video, 2008)
03/09. Naming Oppression and Position
Friedan. "The Problem That Has No Name."
Frye. "Oppression."
Supplementary Reading: MacKinnon, Catharine. "Consciousness Raising."
03/14. Docility and Subjection
Foucault. "Docile Bodies"
Chanter. "Ch3: Disciplining, Controlling and Normalizing Female sexuality with Foucault and Feminist Friends." Gender: Key Concepts
03/16. Pregnant with Thin Possibilities?
Bordo. "Reading the Slender Body."
Mr. Lee. The First Male Pragnancy, Interview
Supplementary Reading: Freud. "Female Sexuality"
03/21 and 03/23. Mid-term Research Week I: No Class: Catch Up On Your Journal Writing & Start Drafting Your Paper.
03/28 and 03/30. Mid-term Research Week II: 6:25-10pm, One-on-one Conferences In My Office.
III.GENDERED/SEXED KNOWLEDGE
GENDERED/SEXED KNOWLEDGE04/04. Does The Sex of the Knower Matter?
Chanter. "Ch4: Feminist Epistemology: Science, Knowledge, Gender, Objectivity." Gender: Key Concepts
04/06. Dunno?-What, Why, and How Come?
Alcoff. "Epistemologies of Ignorance: Three Types"
04/11. Knowing Otherwise or Specificially?
Collins. "Towards an Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology."
Haraway. "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective."
04/13. Discussing Paper Topics in Class
04/27. Student Presentations: What do you know now?
05/02. Walk-in One-on-One Conference @ My Office During Class Time: Bring Your Paper Outline/Draft
IV.GENDERED/SEXED ACTS
GENDERED/SEXED ACTS05/04. Marrying, For instance
Pateman."Feminism and the Marriage Contract."
Chanter. "Ch2: Feminism and Marxism: The Usefulness and the Limitations of Parallel Models." Gender: Key Concepts
05/09. Performing
05/11. Gender Justice and Intersections of Justice
MacKinnon. "Toward Feminist Jurisprudence."
05/16. Final Research Week: No Class: Catch Up On Your Journal Writing & Start Drafting Your Paper.
05/18. Walk-in One-on-One Conference @ My Office During Class Time: Bring Your Paper Outline/Draft
05/20. Portfolio Due: Email by 5pm (and a Hard Copy in my Mail-box, optional, in case electronic transmission fails.)
